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        Cluster Headache Help and Support >> Cluster Headache Specific >> Biker Bob
        
(Message started by: theimage on Nov 18^th, 2006, 9:46am)

Title: Biker Bob
Post by theimage on Nov 18^th, 2006, 9:46am

Hi Biker Bob. I assume you're a motorcyclist? I have a Kawasaki 900 and find that my milder clusters disappear when riding my bike but start again the moment I get off again. I assume this is due to endorphines. Have you experienced this?

Title: Re: Biker Bob
Post by MJ on Nov 18^th, 2006, 11:33am

Hi Image

I am not BB but endorphines or adrenaline are definately good when it comes to CH.

I spent a period of my life chasing adrenaline as it would allways kill a CH for me.

Title: Re: Biker Bob
Post by theimage on Nov 18^th, 2006, 2:42pm

Thanks for that MJ. It's a strange phenomenon that I've noticed. Getting on my bike is the LAST thing I want to do during a mild CH but once on it, the CH goes away until I get off. It happened yesterday and as the CH started I wished I'd used my car for work as the CH made the bike the last thing I wanted. Once on my way though and felt fine. Until I got off.

Title: Re: Biker Bob
Post by BB on Nov 18^th, 2006, 2:48pm

Hi Image,

Welcome !

Just wanting to clarify, so the CH disappears while you are riding and comes back as soon as you get off the bike? How long do you usually ride for ?

Thanks and painfree wishes to you.

Annette

Title: Re: Biker Bob
Post by theimage on Nov 18^th, 2006, 2:56pm

It takes about 30 mins for me to get from work to home (or vice versa) on my bike. My CH's usually last about 3 hours so the bike ride is just a 30 min respite really although I have on some occasions ridden past my house and made the journey last 1 hour.
It's not just the pain that goes but the whole CH.
It comes back within minutes of getting off though.
The bike gives me a great buzz even though I use it every day and I'm sure that has a lot to do with it. Nothing else has the same effect.
Maybe the bike has the same effect as caffeine? Just a thought!

Title: Re: Biker Bob
Post by theimage on Nov 18^th, 2006, 2:58pm

My car has the opposite effect though. And the sun shining through the windscreen....ouch! When I'm in my car I just want to get home to scream in privacy. Complete opposite to the bike.

Title: Re: Biker Bob
Post by BB on Nov 18^th, 2006, 3:52pm

Thats really interesting to hear, Image. I wonder if that means Adrenaline is able to block the neurotransmittors involved in a CH attack ?

Have you ever ridden the whole 3 hrs to see if it would stop the CH completely so that it wouldnt come back when you got off the bike? Maybe its worth a try at least once even just as an experiment.

Annette

Title: Re: Biker Bob
Post by BikerBob on Nov 18^th, 2006, 6:26pm

Riding doesn't affect my CH. I'm used to riding so it's normally not an adrenaline rush. One of my episodes started halfway through a 4400 mile bike trip through the Canadian Rockies and back. It may have been triggered by the bright sunlight all day long, every day, amplified by its reflection off snow covered mountains and glaciers. The only abortive I had was handfuls of snow applied to the head.

BB

Title: Re: Biker Bob
Post by Linda_Howell on Nov 18^th, 2006, 6:42pm

You asked this of BBob but I ride too and it is the rush of air that helps me, nothing else. Kinda like setting your 02 regulator at 25 lpm...lol

Title: Re: Biker Bob
Post by The Image on Nov 18^th, 2006, 6:47pm

I've been riding at least 50 miles per day for the past 25 years so it's not a novelty for me either but I think the concentration factor has a lot to do with it. I must remind you though that I did say 'mild' attacks. I don't think anything will rid me of a 'humdinger' as I call acute attacks. However those attacks that give a shadow and a nagging pain behind the eye are blown away by the bike and a friend of mine who suffers from nuralgia experiences the same. I've never tired of the bike and still get the same enjoyment/thrill as someone who water skis for instance. I think the blend of excitement, concentration, distraction and removement blocks all my senses. When I mentioned it to the doctor he said it could be to do with 'Fight and flight' i.e. I either forget the headache or fall off and die. However, the doctor has never had a CH (not even a mild one) and I don't think that is it. When I mentioned it to a hospital specialist though, he said 'Most likely endorphines, people have reported the same with cannabis'. This is the one I go with as I've also noticed the same with a broken ankle and other ailments.

A 3 hour bike ride though would have me on the other side of the country so that would be difficult. A 30 min respite from a cluster (even a mild one) is no small thing though.

Title: Re: Biker Bob
Post by The Image on Nov 18^th, 2006, 6:51pm

The rush of air theory sounds interesting. It also led me to wondering if my heart speeding up (hence delivering more blood to the head) has something to do with it.

One thing that's noticably strange is how fast the headache goes (within a minute of getting on the bike) and how quickly it returns when I dismount.

Title: Re: Biker Bob
Post by NovellRed on Nov 19^th, 2006, 12:22am

I will not get on my bike if I even have a twinge of a shadow. I ride with an O2 bottle in each saddlebag for the occasions where one hits when I am already riding.
CH and motorcycles, no way, it's just too tempting to grab a handful of throttle and not let go.

Title: Re: Biker Bob
Post by The Image on Nov 19^th, 2006, 6:17am

I got a CH last night at 3.30am that had me pounding my head and rocking back and forth (about a 6) so I got on my bike even though it was the very last thing I felt like and I rode off and it instantly dropped the CH to about a 4 and then I blasted around our orbital at about 110mph leaning nicely into the bends and the CH went down to about 2 then as I rode home it was 0 so I went for a blast over the hills to Nottingham and rode around the lonely lanes of Sherwood forest then zoomed 30 mins to home on this side of the hills. I parked up at home and then as soon as I was inside it returned at about a 6 but was dropping. It was just time for it to be going I think. Went back to bed then once it was down to 0.

I think it's endorphines. Powerfull things endorphines. I remember when my exwife was in labour and she had a TENS machine which makes the body produce endorphines. She said switch it off it isn't doing anything and as soon as I clicked the switch she screamed OH GOD SWITCH IT ON SWITCH IT BACK ON'!
So, evidently it had been doing quite a lot. Now there's an interesting thought, what would a TENS machine do for a CH?

Title: Re: Biker Bob
Post by floridian on Nov 19^th, 2006, 10:14pm

There was somebody here a while ago that claimed that striking a tuning fork and apply it as close to the cluster spot as possible would offer temporary relief.

Title: Re: Biker Bob
Post by Sean_C on Nov 19^th, 2006, 10:28pm

on 11/19/06 at 22:14:40, floridian wrote:

There was somebody here a while ago that claimed that striking a tuning fork and apply it as close to the cluster spot as possible would offer temporary relief.

Now that was funny [smiley=laugh.gif]

Cheers

Sean................................... ;;D

Title: Re: Biker Bob
Post by Barry_T_Coles on Nov 19^th, 2006, 11:36pm

on 11/19/06 at 06:17:22, The Image wrote:

Now there's an interesting thought, what would a TENS machine do for a CH?

I use a TENS machine for reducing the ganglion lump on my cluster side.
It does JS for the CH immediately but will reduce the lump in about an hour which in turn helped me with reducing the CH attacks.

Regards
Barry

Title: Re: Biker Bob
Post by chopmyheadoff on Nov 20^th, 2006, 6:29am

i have an fzr1000 and when a ch hits its full throttle all the way home. does nothing for my ch but gets me to my imitrex faster :P

Title: Re: Biker Bob
Post by The Image on Nov 20^th, 2006, 5:17pm

That happened to me today. I could tell it was going to be a bad one and rode straight home asap.

Title: Re: Biker Bob
Post by gore2424 on Nov 20^th, 2006, 10:29pm

Wish I had my bike I had back in the mid 70's :>(
was always happy when riding BUT didnt have the CH back then either Terry